A scene from the Real Ability Show presented by theatre group Sthalantar

The song Jai ho hadn’t yet won an Oscar but people both on and off the performance area of the Padatik Buildwell theatre were jiving to its beats, though it was more to salute the young actors of the Real Ability Show. The show, presented on February 20 and 21 — the second venture of theatre group Sthalantar — was a candid expression from the world of the differently abled.

In its second year, Sthalantar is led by Souptic Chakraborty, a 24-year-old who scripted and directed the play. “As winner of the Young Achiever’s Award 2007 from INLAKS (an Indo-US collaboration), I was required to do a one-year project. I approached the NGO Reach that runs a school for special children in Golf Green and they agreed to be a part of it,” explained Souptic.

Using the familiar reality show format, Souptic presented a mock contest in which the children — all bearing number tags (not names) — were to sing, play the drum, mime a cricket match or do whatever they were good at. On stage was a set of judges who seemed hard to please. They harshly criticised each contestant and finally walked out in a huff saying that judging shows by such children were below their dignity. When a contestant, a young girl, burst out crying, several people in the audience spoke out against the judges, not realising that this was exactly the intention of the play. The compere of the show then appealed to the audience to show leniency in judging children as they were special.

But it took a long time for him to comprehend the world of the deaf, dumb, blind or mentally impaired. “Even before I could develop a script, I had to learn to get across to them, to use sign language and Braille. The teachers at Reach helped me but it still took a lot of effort to get used to it. I also worked to get accepted as one Mr Sharp Nose (that was their nickname for me) who had a new idea to share. Rehearsals began in earnest only a month ago. I was allowed to work with them for only an hour a week to not stress them out,” he said. His ideas had initially surprised the teachers as this was no concert that Souptic wanted to put up. “The play was to challenge the audience to accept the different perceptions of special children,” he said.

Pity for the children’s disabilities is not the answer. The children can survive with their abilities.

The show ended with all the children coming on stage to comfort the girl and then breaking into a dance, with Jai ho playing in the background.

Sebanti Sarkar

CHIT CHAT

Easy win for National High

National High School won the TTIS Cricket tournament beating Ballygunge Government High School by 57 runs. The event, held in association with Himani Fast Relief, Red FM and Raja Biscuits, saw 32 schools fighting it out. All the matches in the series, that ran over two months, were played at Vivekananda Park. The preliminaries were eight-overs-a-side matches. The semi-finals and final were 10-overs-a-side. The first semi-final saw a nail-biting finish with St Joseph’s Collegiate School giving a tough fight to National High. The second was played between Miranda High School and Ballygunge Government High School.

The final saw National High scoring a comfortable 122 in the first half. Ballygunge Government High only managed to gather 65 runs in their allotted 10 overs.

Former Bengal captain Deep Dasgupta was the chief guest of the event.

Talking poetry

Calcutta University’s department of English organised a seminar on the poetry of post-independence Bengal and Britain, in collaboration with Sahitya Akademi on February 27. Attended by eminent poets and writers like Sunil Gangopadhyay and Subodh Sarkar, the seminar was conducted by professors Chinmoy Guha and Tirtha Prasad Mukherjee.

Sunil Gangopadhyay recited his poetry. Subjects discussed included the development of poetry after Tagore. Subodh Sarkar recited Khalashitolar Teenjon and Manipur er Ma.